Ibrahim Chatta is a popular Nollywood Yoruba actor, producer and director. He is also a singer and songwriter.

In this post, we take a look at the biography of Ibrahim Chatta, his family life, career and the movies he has featured in.

Early years

Ibrahim Chatta was born Abiodun Ibrahim Chatta on October 13, 1970. The actor hails from Kwara. He grew up in a large family of 14 children.

Education

Ibrahim Chatta’s does not have a secondary or higher education. According to the actor, his lack of education was due to peer pressure. At that time, he was quite young and he could not put his mind to the fact that education was important which led to him leaving school in his third grade.

But Ibrahim’s lack of education didn’t deter him from pursuing a career in acting and he also disclosed that he was able to learn a lot of things on his own.

Acting

Prior to his breakthrough in acting, Ibrahim worked as a bus conductor in order to make ends meet.

The movie that shot him into prominence was “Aiyekooto.” Some of the popular movies he has featured in include Mafi wonmi (2008), Atinio’go (2006) and October 1 (2014).

He has featured in scores of movies; some of these include Leyin Igbeyawo, Irawo, Oke Akisa Aiye, Dudu, Odunbaku Omin Awure, Eni amongst others.

Recently, Ibrahim revealed that he plans to quit acting in 2020. Although, he further disclosed that his family and colleagues were not well disposed to it and hoping it would fall through because they think he is too young to quit.

The actor reiterated that he has sacrificed his entire life for acting as he began acting at the age of 15.

Awards

Ibrahim has won many awards. These include Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 2012, Best of Nollywood Awards for his role in the movie, Aiyekooto and City People Entertainment Awards 2016 Nomination for the Best Actor of the year.

Ibrahim Chatta has been handpicked by many as the successor to Odunlade Adekola’s reign as the Best Nollywood Yoruba actor. However, sources in the movie sector say that Ibrahim needs like two years to develop and get lead roles non-stop before he can snatch the lover-boy role from Odunlade.

However, the actor recently made a controversial statement about awards in an interview when he revealed that most Nigerian awards lack credibility. According to him, most award organisers wouldn’t honour you if you don’t submit your film in the entries.

He reiterated that the organisers usually ask movie stars if they will be attending the event ceremony and if they are not coming, they automatically lose the awards.

Also, he revealed that some awards wouldn’t give you awards if you don’t ‘buy’ seats at the event.

Marriage

Ibrahim has been married three times. His first marriage was to Olayinka Solomon, but unfortunately, the couple went their separate ways after a few years. According to reports, the marriage ended in divorce and mutual recrimination with Solomon accusing him of wife battery, a charge he denied.

The union produced a child, Malik.

Subsequently, Chatta found solace in the arms of the daughter of a Senator in Kwara state, Salamatu Mohammed Lafiaji.

They met in 2007 and had a traditional wedding on December 30, 2012. However, this union was shortlived too. One of the reasons for their break up was the abuse Salamatu purportedly faced in the hands of Ibrahim.

Salamatu revealed that she had met Ibrahim on the set of Kunle Afod’s movie titled Tiwonsikanga in 2007. They started living together from 2008 and subsequently got married in 2012. But she discovered that he was a womanizer and a gold digger. In fact, he had found a way to collect all the money in her account before she realised what was going on. The estranged wife also revealed that his constant beatings resulted in a miscarriage.

But Ibrahim denied the allegations and said that he never hit her. In fact, the only woman he ever hit was his first wife which was a response to her slapping him.

Narrating his own side of the story, Ibrahim revealed that there was no trust in the union when he married Salamatu. According to the actor, he did everything he could to make the marriage work he later heard that she told him that she had stopped loving him since 2012 when they did their Nikkah wedding. She further revealed to her sister that she had been pretending all the while.

Nonetheless, Ibrahim disclosed that he didn’t allow that to deter him as he continued to make efforts and was willing to put things in order.

Also, there were rumours that Salamatu had left him because his apartment was shabby and when her mother came to visit them she was quite disappointed with her daughter’s living condition. But Ibrahim refuted the claims as he stated that he was living in a four bedrooms with two sitting rooms so the home was never an issue.

The actor also revealed that he loves having people around him and his ex-wife had issues with that even though she knew he was like that even before they got married.

Ibrahim lamented that he has been labelled a wife beater based on this unfounded rumours and this has led to him losing several endorsement deals. The actor went further to state that anyone with evidence that he is a wife beater should come forward with evidence.

Eventually, Ibrahim had to let Salamatu go as it was clear she was no longer interested in the union.

Currently, Ibrahim is married to Lizzie Berry. The couple tied the knot on the 1st of October, 2016. The actor managed to keep the marriage proceedings from the press but the details eventually leaked a week before the wedding.

There were reports that the wedding was fast-tracked as a result of Lizzie’s pregnancy however, the actor refused to comment on the details of his marriage.

Lizzie put to birth on the 6th of February 2017 and Ibrahim broke the news to fans and followers his Instagram page. This is Ibrahim’s second child. It would be recalled that he had a son, Malik with his first wife, Olayinka Solomon.